These numbers are a serious underestimation. The Economic Policy Institute reported that it found that for every 100 workers able to successfully apply for unemployment benefits, there are another 37 that had tried to file but could not get through the system.
World Socialist Web Site
May 8, 2020
Daniel Costa and Ron Hira have released a new report for the Economic Policy Institute: H-1B visas and prevailing wage levels.
Here are key takeaways the two authors identify:
- DOL lets H-1B employers undercut local wages. Sixty percent of H-1B positions certified by the U.S. Department of Labor are assigned wage levels well below the local median wage for the occupation. While H-1B program rules allow this, DOL has the authority to change it—but hasn’t.
- A small number of employers dominate the program. While over 53,000 employers used the H-1B program in 2019, the top 30 H-1B employers accounted for more than one in four of all 389,000 H-1B petitions approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019.
- Outsourcing firms make heavy use of the H-1B program. Half of the top 30 H-1B employers use an outsourcing business model to provide staff for third-party clients, rather than employing H-1B workers directly to fill a special need at the company that applies for the visa.
- Major U.S. firms use the H-1B program to pay low wages. Among the top 30 H-1B employers are major U.S. firms including Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, Google, Apple, and Facebook. All of them take advantage of program rules in order to legally pay many of their H-1B workers below the local median wage for the jobs they fill.
ImmigrationProf Blog
May 8, 2020
Lydia Boussour, senior U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, expects the report to show even more job losses: 28 million. She cites an Economic Policy Institute analysis noting that as many as 14 million Americans couldn’t file jobless claims because of swamped phone and computer systems.
The Hawk Eye
May 8, 2020
The real unemployment rate is probably higher, says Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute.
“I think we are not near the peak yet,” she says. “I think we are still going to see additional job losses show up in the data for May, for June. Unfortunately, I don’t think this has gotten as bad as it will get yet.”
NPR
May 8, 2020
The Economic Policy Institute estimates that nearly 13 million Americans have likely lost their employer-sponsored health insurance so far.
NPR
May 8, 2020
A survey by the Economic Policy Institute found that for every 100 workers who filed for unemployment insurance, 37 additional workers tried to apply but could not connect with the unemployment benefits system to make a claim.
Houston Chronicle
May 8, 2020
As many as 14 million Americans who could qualify for some type of unemployment compensation are not receiving assistance, according to a survey published April 28 by the Economic Policy Institute.
Freeman South Dakota Freeman
May 8, 2020
“At the low end, the jobs losses in April will most certainly have cancelled out all of the gains in the recovery from the Great Recession,” Elise Gould, a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute, wrote in a blog post. “At the high end, we will have returned to a level of employment last experienced in the mid-1990s, canceling out all of the gains in employment over the last 25 years.”
USA Today
May 8, 2020
Lydia Boussour, senior U.S. economist for Oxford Economics, expects the report to show even more job losses — 28 million. She cites an Economic Policy Institute analysis noting that as many as 14 million Americans couldn’t file jobless claims because of swamped phone and computer systems.
Yet she estimates one-third of those laid off left the labor force, pushing the participation rate below 60%, a level that hasn’t been seen in more than 50 years. If those jobless Americans had looked for work, the unemployment rate could soar to upwards of 21%.
USA Today
May 8, 2020